LAS CRUCES - According to a Dec. 7 report from the Las Cruces Association of Realtors, the average combined sales price of the 169 new and existing homes, townhomes and condominiums sold in November hit $220,776.

That’s a 7.3 percent increase over October’s average price and a 10.8 percent increase over the average sales price posted in November 2017. Last month’s average price also came within $1,371 of our area’s all-time highest average annual sales price of $222,147 posted in 2007.

Of the 169 homes sold in November, 26 were new construction. New-home buyers paid an average of $234,359, or $129.01 per square foot, for their homes containing an average of 1,825 square feet of heated and cooled living space. A total of 76 days elapsed between the day the homes were added to our inventory and the day homebuyers took possession of their new residences.

Previously owned freestanding, single-family homes accounted for 130 of the total number of sales booked in November. Resale buyers purchased homes containing an average of 2,054 square feet of living space and paid an average price of $225,948, or $111.67 per square foot. Sellers of those homes waited an average of 65 days to collect their sale proceeds.

Average sales price of new and existing Las Cruces-area homes, townhomes and condos.(Photo: Las Cruces Association of Realtors)

Sales of townhomes and condominiums were responsible for the remaining 13 November closings. The three condominium sellers whose transactions closed in November waited an average of 29 days for their proceeds and sold their units for an average price of $135,500, or $112.97 per square foot.

Townhomes accounted for the remaining 10 sales, which carried an average price of $143,815, or $95.68 per square foot, and an average market time of 85 days.

Las Cruces-area Realtors sold a total of 1,956 new and existing homes, townhomes and condominiums through the first 11 months of this year, outpacing last year’s 11-month total by 235 units, or 13.7 percent. The number also represents the third-highest number of closed sales in the history of Las Cruces-area real estate, with one more month of production still to come.

Buy Photo

Gary Sandler(Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News)

The number of Las Cruces-area closed sales reached a record 2,303 in 2006. The second-highest number of sales ever recorded was 2,136 in 2005. Will our market surpass that number by the time Dec. 31 rolls around? The difference between the second-highest total of 2,136-units closed in 2005 and the 1,956-units sold through November of this year is 180 units. Local Realtors sold 175 units last December, so it appears that this year’s race to the top will be photo finish.

See you at closing.

Gary Sandler is a full-time Realtor and the president of Gary Sandler Inc., Realtors in Las Cruces. He can be reached at 575-642-2292 or Gary@GarySandler.com.